What is Penpot?
Penpot is a design and prototyping platform by Kaleidos. Its biggest competitors are Figma and Adobe XD.
Penpot’s key differentiating factors and elements include:
- It is open-source.
- It is free.
- Its native format is SVG
- It is browser-based.
What is the hype about Penpot?
Since Adobe’s acquisition of Figma, some Figma users and designers who traditionally shun Adobe’s suites of products have been trying to find an alternative.
And they found Penpot, an open-source alternative.
The company secured a new round of funding in September 2022 and reported that new sign-ups increased by 5600% following the Figma deal.
How to use Penpot?
Penpot is easy to use. Simply register an account and start using it!
As it is open source, if you would like to host Penpot in your own environment, you can consider using platforms such as Elestio or Docker.
Features of Penpot
Interactions
Penpot is designed for interactive prototyping. You are able to customize flows and animations for your prototypes using Penpot.
Template and library
Penpot has some useful templates and libraries. However, as it is still relatively new, it does not have the scale of Figma and does not offer any plugins too.
Export
Penpot currently supports export as a Penpot file (.penpot), standard file (.svg + .json), or PDF artboards.
Work as a team
Same as Figma, you can view and work together as a team with Penpot.
